LOWER POTTSGROVE — First quarters and the Pottsgrove football team haven’t gotten along so well in more than a handful of games this season.

A game’s first 12 minutes have served as a feeling-out process, if you will.

The next 36 minutes of the clock, that’s when the Falcons made it much more of a ‘Feel This!’ process in running up an 11-0 record and earning the top seed in the District One-Class AAA playoffs,

It wouldn’t be out of line to call the first quarter of Friday night’s district semifinal against West Chester Henderson a surprising twist.

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That’s because the Falcons didn’t waste their time playing chess with the opening quarter, jumping out to a 14-0 lead on the No. 4 seed Warriors.

A commanding opening drive, capped by senior quarterback Tory Hudgins’ two-yard run, gave Pottsgrove a 6-0 lead. On their next possession, Marquis Barefield carried for a first down on a fake punt, then the Falcons converted on fourth down to set up a two-yard touchdown run for Nick Brennan. A two-point conversion later, the Falcons had a 14-0 lead.

Talk about a sense of urgency.

Pottsgrove threw in a stop on fourth-and-goal for good measure as the quarter neared completion.

The bad news — Henderson was happy to match that urgency.

In the end, the twist was a cruel one for Pottsgrove as Henderson rallied for a 31-28 victory on the Falcons’ home turf to reach the district final and end the season of the reigning champions.

No team would trade a 14-0 lead for a 14-0 deficit, but the emotional lift the two scores gave the Falcons did them no favors.

“It probably lifted us too much,” Hudgins said. “We had a 14-point lead and we thought we had the game already won. And we weren’t ready enough the rest of the game.”

Henderson had a lot to do with that.

The second quarter — a time Pottsgrove had used to assert its dominance in many games this year – was all Warriors.

Backup running back Tre Green put Henderson on the board after starter Spencer Rymiszewski was injured while running a punt back inside the Falcons’ five-yard line.

Green was far from done as he ran for 169 yards and three touchdowns in all.

What was expected to be a battle in the trenches certainly was, which is how the Warriors used the final three quarters to catch up and ultimately take the lead for good on Sean Engle’s 31-yard field goal with 2:54 left in the game.

It didn’t help that the Falcons lost starting linemen Anthony Pond and Tom Sephakis, who went down in the first half with injuries.

But Hudgins brushed aside any excuse talk.

“We win as a team and we lose as a team,” he said.

Pottsgrove executed early, but Henderson was the team executing when it counted most — quarterback James Bady throwing for his second-highest total of the season and Green rushing for more yards than he had the entire season going into the game.

“We came out ready to play and our offense was executing, but their defense stepped it up, especially in the second half,” Hudgins said.

That defense, led by linebacker Adam Weaver and corner Chris Mitten, allowed the Falcons only 21 net yards in the second half.

They lost a pair of fumbles in the second half as well, mistakes simply too costly to advance at this stage of the season.

“When you get into the playoffs you can’t make mistakes like we did tonight. I think we made more mistakes tonight than we did all year,” Pottsgrove coach Rick Pennypacker said. “(Henderson) made plays we didn’t, and that’s the name of the game.”